Gorgeous Day for a ride & Danny Gokey Day!

Today I ventured out on the nature trail and the green is bursting out everywhere now. It's so beautiful. I was busy being a shutterbug today. There are some pretty white blossoms blooming and new green leaves emerging from the tree branches. All of this is enough to make me go crazy taking photos. And today was only a moderate pic day for me. I took approximately 100 photos on the trail today. Each time I visit the trail I discover and see new things and I keep my eyes tuned to the small details. I almost missed these beautiful pink buds and blooms on a tree, they were discreetly mixed between the branches and leaves making them difficult to see at first glance. I noticed a hint of pink and put my bike in reverse for closer inspection. Wow, was I thrilled that I didn't miss these gems. They are so pretty.

I wanted to get some pics of the new growth of Spring to use as inspiration for my work. There are so many sites to help inspire me and ignite my imagination for my stories and artwork. Who couldn't find some inspiration in beautiful surroundings?

This pic may look a little odd, but that's exactly why I was captivated by it and why I photographed it. They look like something playful and unique for my storybook characters to live and play.

One of the mini bridges on the nature trail. Isn't nature gorgeous? Look at the bright blue sky and green vegetation and the delicate white blossoms. It's exhilerating to take a ride on the nature trail and leaves me amazed and intrigued. Another equally amazing time was last week on Friday when Renee and I went to support Danny Gokey in Milwaukee. He had a full schedule on Friday during his trip back to his hometown to film for the American Idol show. We went to the Summerfest Grounds to see Danny's mini-concert and we were not disappointed. Initially we couldn't make up our minds on whether or not we wanted to drive down to Milwaukee to see him. What were we thinking? I'm glad that we finally were persuaded to go. The weather was gorgeous and it was a great way to celebrate the beginning of summer. And need I say, we got to see Danny in person too.

We didn't come prepared with a sign or handmade t-shirt to wear, but thankfully we were supplied with some signs and a button (shown above). We also each got a free day pass for Summerfest. As we waited for the concert to begin, we encountered those people that try to squeeze past you to get closer to the stage. We tried our best to not let everyone squeeze in front of us, but it's hard sometimes. However, I can't help but share one of the "best" and I mean that sarastically reasons for squeezing between us. A couple "squeezers" told us that their seats were up there pointing ahead of us. The ironic thing is that there weren't any seats to sit on, so where were those seats they were trying to get to.

We had a pretty good spot at the concert. We weren't super close, but we were close enough to see Danny onstage when people's signs weren't blocking our view. One person had this big cardboard sign that often got in our way. When the sign was held up in the air, I could see Danny when I tried to look below the sign if I was lucky. Fortunately the sign wasn't up in the air the whole time. Considering there were 25,000 people there, our spot was excellent.

I was so happy to be a part of Danny Gokey Day. It was awesome to see everyone who showed up to support Danny. The experience was once in a lifetime. At one point during the concert, Danny asked all of us to yell, "Hi American Idol." I'm exicted to see what makes it on the air for the American Idol show.

Renee and I got a little lost on our way back home. We missed the correct exit to get to Hwy 41 so we were on our way to Port Washington. Renee used the GPS on her cell phone to help us back to Hwy 41. We drove into this one town to eat and didn't even know what city we were eating in. Renee asked a man if he could tell us where we were. He told us we were in Grafton and asked if we knew where we were going. He tried to tell us which way we needed to go. Unfortunately the GPS directions weren't matching what the man told us, so we ended up pacing back and forth along one of the main roads in Grafton, Hwy 60, I believe. We realized that we really liked Grafton from what we saw and we spotted an excellent fitness facility where Renee ended up asking for directions. We found our way back to Hwy 41 from the guy at the fitness center.

After the concert, Danny was headed for Miller Park to throw the first pitch at the Brewer's game and sing the National Anthem. We couldn't go see him at the Brewer game. Bummer! However, I did see the great job he did on youtube.com and I will see it when it airs on American Idol this week. Go, Go, Gokey! :-)